


Restart

by SheenaWilde



Category: Jigsaw (Movie), Saw (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Awkward Flirting, Eleanor approves, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Happy Ending, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post-Canon, Slow Burn, protective Eleanor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-27 22:29:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16711240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheenaWilde/pseuds/SheenaWilde
Summary: After Halloran is dead, Logan is ready to forget that whole mess and move on with his life. With Keith staying in town, they rekindle their old friendship and become close once again.





	Restart

After he shut the door on Halloran’s corpse, everything happened so quickly. Eleanor came with Keith, the police and the ambulance in tow, everyone rushing over to him as he came out of the barn stumbling, bathed in blood. He quickly assured the horrified Eleanor and Keith that it was not his own, but Eleanor still insisted he went to the paramedics. He did not put up a fight – it was smarter to play along, he needed to act as a victim. He had planned this whole carefully and risked so much, he was smart and patient enough to see it through to the end.

The paramedics checked him thoroughly. He had a mild concussion – thanks to Halloran knocking him out – and some scratches here and there, but otherwise he was deemed relatively healthy. He was then asked a series of the usual questions on the police’s behalf by Keith. Was he drugged? Did he see anyone else? Where’s Halloran?

“Your men will find his body soon enough” Logan said silently, keeping his eyes on the ground as he sat in the back of the ambulance car with Keith standing next to him. It was only the two of them, the paramedics standing on alert a bit further to give them some privacy for the interrogation.

“His body? He’s dead?” Keith asked, eyes going wide in disbelief.

“You see the amount of blood on my shirt, don’t you? I’ve already told you it’s not mine” Logan looked up slowly at his friend. “No one can survive the loss of so much blood. Or… the way he got injured…” he finished by lowering his head again and making himself shudder, as if triggered by the memory. He felt his stomach tighten uncomfortably as he was lying to his friend but he was used to it by this point – ever since Keith showed up in his morgue, he was battling this feeling.

“Shit. What happened, man? Just tell me” Keith said in a low, friendly tone, and moved to sit beside Logan on the back of the ambulance. He put a friendly hand on his shoulder, squeezing it in reassurance. Logan would have smiled back at him if he could but he was too worked up to do that, even if witnessing Halloran’s death was not the reason.

“It’s… it’s a mess. Halloran showed up when we came here with Eleanor to look around. He pointed a gun at me, forcing both me and Eleanor to drop our weapons. Then he attacked me. Knocked me out. I woke up while he was trying to put me into… into this collar thing. I struggled and ended up pushing him back into it” he recounted things as the police should hear it but here he made a pause, taking in a long, shaky breath. “A recording started playing, then it started to work. I didn’t- I couldn’t do anything… His blood was everywhere…”

“It’s okay” Keith whispered, his hand tightening on his shoulder once again, his voice comforting. “That’s enough for now. I… I have to go check the body. Are you going to be alright?”

“Yes. Yes, I will” Logan nodded as he looked up at his friend.

“Good. I’ll see if they are ready with Eleanor, then you two could wait together” Keith nodded as he stood up and his hand was gone from Logan’s shoulder as well. “After what we found out about Halloran, neither of you are suspected. And this madness… Jesus. I’m sure you’ll be glad to see her alright as well.”

“Are you… Christ, Keith, do you still think we are together?” Logan looked up at his friend with a frown. “I told you we are not. Yes, she is a beautiful, attractive and smart woman, but she is a colleague and a friend, nothing more.”

“You know, it’s alright if-” Keith started slowly but Logan cut him off.

“No. It’s not because of Christine, alright? We wouldn’t work. We are great friends, that’s all the chemistry we have” he said sharply, annoyed, then shook his head. “Do we seriously have to have this conversation right now?”

“No. No, of course not. I’m sorry, man” Keith apologized immediately and cast his eyes downwards. “I just tried to be, y’know, supportive. I’ll send her over anyway, if you want. As a friend.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice” Logan nodded, his voice now rid of the sudden flash of anger. Keith nodded too in response, then walked away.

***

Logan was taken to the hospital for additional checkup. He had a shower, threw his bloody shirt into the trash and got a change of clothes before he was having his blood drawn just to be sure and headed for CT to confirm the mild concussion diagnosis. They wanted to keep him in for observation just to be sure but he was having none of it.

“I have a daughter to go home to. This whole nightmare was enough to deal with. I just want to go home to see my daughter” he told the doctor, who made a face but agreed eventually. They knew each other, not too well, but well enough that he trusted Logan to take care of himself.

“I guess I’ll see you around then” Keith stopped him as he was on his way out with a police officer who was going to be his ride home. He stood in front of him somewhat awkwardly, hands in his pockets and his eyes not quite on Logan. “Until we close this case, at least.”

“If you’re staying with homicide here, more than for just this case” he replied, watching his friend curiously. “It also doesn’t have to be just for work. You planning on sticking around?”

“I… am not sure. Depends on a lot of people and circumstances, but with the shitstorm Halloran left behind, it’s gonna be a few months in the least. Maybe a year” Keith answered, his face turning into a grimace at the mention of Halloran, then finally raised his eyes to look at Logan. “But yeah, we could catch up outside of work once this case is closed.”

“Definitely” Logan nodded and gave his friend a faint smile. “See you around then.”

“Yeah, see ya.”

With that, Logan followed the cop outside to the car. By the time he got home, it was 8 am and he was greeted by his daughter happily jumping into his arms as greeting. He hugged her and was glad that everything turned out the way he wanted.

***

“Hey, man. Can I bother you for a sec?” Keith said through the phone as Logan picked up. He raised his eyebrows curiously but leaned back in his chair. He was doing only paperwork but that could wait, there was no ongoing murder case he had to put too much effort into.

“Hey there. Sure, I’m free.”

“I was wondering if you wanna grab coffee sometime?” Keith asked, his voice clearly nervous.

Logan could understand that. These last weeks were emotionally straining on their friendship, with Keith having to interrogate him over and over again, questioning him about supposedly haunting details, going through his medical records from after the case, and comparing his statement with Eleanor’s. While Keith didn’t believe anymore that Logan was guilty, he still had to prove that Halloran was the one who did it and that his death had been self-defense. And Logan, while he was glad Keith believed him innocent, was not stupid enough to let his guard down on the interrogations. He had to keep his mind sharp and remember the details. He couldn’t put everything on their friendship from then on. It was straining him to have to lie continuously, consistently to his friend but he did what he had to. But the case was eventually cleared up, and now, a week later, Logan’s life was back to normal.

His relationship with Keith was still to be settled. He had actually considered Logan to be the murderer for a while, after all. That issue had been addressed but Keith still couldn’t quite manage his guilt.

“Yeah, sure. When did you think of?” Logan replied at ease, playing with the pen in his hand.

“Uh, I don’t know, right now? I have a break. I could drop by” Keith replied and it was clear from the way he spoke that it was his initial idea before calling Logan, not just a random thought now. It amused Logan on the one hand, but on the other, it worried him. They should be rebuilding their friendship but if they couldn’t move over this one case, it was going to be hard.

Logan had a lot more reason to be nervous around the detective, anyway.

“That sounds nice. Do you want to bring coffee from somewhere decent or should we just risk getting some in the canteen?” he replied with a smirk, trying to lighten the mood.

“Oh, hell no, I’m bringing some from Starbucks” Keith’s laughter came from the other end of the line.

“Wise decision. See you then. I’m in my office. You know the way around” Logan said, leaning forward in his chair.

“Yeah, sure. See you in a few.”

Then he hung up. Logan put his phone down on the table and stared at his desk for a few moments, lost in thoughts for a few moments. Finally, he stood up and decided to make a quick trip up to the men’s dressing room to wash his face and put on some deodorant. He smelled of formaldehyde and sweat from earlier, he could use some cleaning up.

By the time Keith showed up, he was back in his office and even managed to get the flood of paperwork on his desk somewhat under control. At least now there was enough space to put their coffees on and he could see Keith when he sat in the chair across from him between the piles of paper.

“You got some work to catch up on, I’m not envious of you” Keith said with a half smirk as he eyes the piles of paper on his friend’s desk.

“Please, don’t even remind me” Logan said as he leaned back in his chair and closing his eyes, he took a sip of his coffee. Damn, he missed good coffee. He got so used to drinking just what was easy to get.

“If it’s any consolation, I’ve been fighting pretty piles like these, too. Barely finished with them” Keith said with a shrug and an understanding expression. He took a sip of his coffee, too, then after a few moments, spoke again. “It seems I’ll be sticking around for a while. Too much shit to clean up after Halloran and no one else to take his place. I need to train a partner who can then train their own. They’re a bit low on people.”

“I see. Despite the whole mess, at least we get to see each other more, and not only because of a case” Logan smiled at his friend over his cup of coffee. “You should come over sometime, meet my daughter. She… she is so much like Christine. You’ll like each other.”

“Sounds good. She must be a very clever little girl, judging by her parents” Keith smiled happily.

“Yeah, she is” Logan beamed proudly at that, switching into dad-mode immediately and went on enthusiastically. “She likes school so much, reads a lot and she is so adorable when she is working on something hard. She always gets this real deep frown, concentrating on figuring out the answer. She is so much like Christine, too, with the way she declares something important to her.” His voice got softer as he mentioned his late wife and he smiled bitterly. “Point is, you would like her. And she would be all over you, being a real cop and all that.”

“She really sounds like your girl then” Keith laughed softly, a bit torn between addressing the issue of Christine or not, but he decided in favor of it, continuing on a softer tone. “Look, if you ever wanna talk about Christine… You know you can come to me, right?”

“Thanks, but it’s not necessary” Logan shook his head and Keith noted the way he quickly sorted his emotions. “It’s been two years. I’m way over the part where I had to talk about it. Now with Halloran’s death, it’s truly over, every single part of it. I know I shouldn’t say this, but it feels like revenge.”

“I know what you mean” Keith nodded along seriously. Yes, well, Logan probably shouldn’t be going around announcing this, but after the death of his wife, no one’s as stupid as to think he didn’t feel satisfaction over Halloran’s death. Who could blame him? He lost the love of his life and the mother of his daughter. It would be unnerving if he wasn’t at least a bit glad.

“Thanks. For understanding” Logan mumbled, watching the coffee cup instead of looking at his friend.

“Of course” Keith said with a nod and smiled reassuringly when Logan finally glanced up at him.

***

A new case came in and Logan was leaning above the body of a woman in her late twenties. Her body was found in her apartment by her roommate who just arrived home from a week-long vacation. The ambulance was called and it was pretty clear that the woman had been dead for a few days now. Samples from her blood and urine had already been drawn for further analysis but until then, Logan and Eleanor were doing the autopsy on her body, searching for any clue to what caused her death.

“So… You and Keith spend a lot of time together lately” Eleanor started as she watched Logan do the first cuts. They had not found any external signs and both of them were strongly suspecting overdose but an internal examination had to be performed.

“Yeah” Logan said, not taking his eyes off the body but his voice was mildly confused. “He’s a friend.”

“You never told me about him much. You guys go back long?” Eleanor prodded further and handed Logan the tweezers when he reached out a hand.

“We were together in the war and became good friends” he shrugged slightly as he pulled the skin out of his way. “We were stationed together for years, that makes pretty solid friendships.”

“Why have you never mentioned him then?” Eleanor prodded him further and now was looking at his face intently, curious of his reaction. The way he was focusing on the corpse, he wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing.

“We didn’t really keep in touch. It was… too much after the war, I guess, too many memories. We also lived far away from each other in the states and Facebook wasn’t really a thing back then” he shrugged, then looked up at his colleague. “The rib cutter, please.”

“But now he’s here” Eleanor continued unfazed as she handed the requested tool.

“Yes. Your point?” Logan asked and now his voice was a bit irritated as he worked the cutters up the ribs.

“Nothing. I’m just sure you’re glad you two can spend so much time together” Eleanor said innocently but Logan frowned at the way she was smiling back at him. He nodded slowly, in a if-you-say-so way, hoping that she would stop with the questions. Eleanor did stop with the questions but not with the smiling, and Logan wasn’t sure if he could actually count that as a win.

***

Logan looked at his watch nervously, then looked around the restaurant again, his anxiety worsening with every passing minutes. His lunch break was only one hour long and twenty minutes had already passed with Keith nowhere near in sight. They had agreed on meeting here at 1 am but he hadn’t showed up so far, nor did he send a text or called. Logan was nervous that something happened to Keith, that a case went seriously bad and he was injured while Logan was just sitting at a restaurant, waiting like a fool. If Keith is in the hospital right now, he should be there with him, not here…

Then there was the rational part of him that was telling him that there were a hundred different reasons why a detective would be late from a lunch, he shouldn’t be jumping onto the worst case scenarios. The rational part of his mind was telling him to focus on being a bit selfish – that he couldn’t have lunch with his friend if he’s late, that maybe he wouldn’t be able to see Keith today.

Somehow, this felt almost as bad a situation as his first thought.

“Oh, man, I’m so sorry!” he heard Keith’s voice suddenly behind his back and jumped to his feet, turning towards the voice to greet him as relief washed over him. Keith was hurrying towards him with a guilty smile, completely healthy, and they hugged when he finally got there. “I’m sorry, we got a meeting and there were new evidence coming up, so it took longer than I thought.”

“It’s alright” Logan said with a relieved smile and it felt almost like a lie without the rest of his thoughts. I thought that something bad happened, that you were injured. I was worried about you.  
I just wanted to see you.

“Do you still have time to grab something?” Keith said, frowning, as he let go of his friend and glanced down at his watch. “I don’t want you to be late because of me. Maybe we should get take away and go back to the hospital?”

“No, it’s fine, I can be a few minutes late. But for once, I’d like to have lunch without the smell of formaldehyde, if possible” Logan grinned as he sat back down, and Keith took the chair across from him, mirroring his expression.

“Yeah, I can understand why you’d say that” Keith nodded and took the menu into his hands, scanning over it. Being a cop, he had to get used to eating when and where he could, so if he could allow to be picky about the place and time, he was damn well going to be. Same went for a coroner.

“So was this case something I’m going to be involved in?” Logan asked, trying to keep his voice light, as he too picked up the menu to look over it, although he had done that a thousand times already.

“No, fortunately not” Keith shook his head, then lowered the menu in his hands to look at Logan. “It’s just a petty theft with no injuries involved. Only complication was finding the guy. The way the witnesses described him, it could’ve been anyone, so we were just trying to get extra information from them. Bit ridiculous, honestly.”

“Still better than murder” Logan said silently as he too put down the menu on the table.

“Yes. So much better” Keith nodded in agreement, but he didn’t like how the mood darkened. They were both dealing with so many dark things in their job, they shouldn’t be thinking of them in their free time. “Well, while I do like to see you, I prefer to see like this, not because of some grim cases” he tried to lighten the mood and smiled at Logan.

“Yeah. I definitely have to agree with you” Logan smiled back at him. He was more than ready to move on from discussing such dark topics when they were finally enjoying their breaks together.

***

Keith was already in his car on his way to Logan’s when he got a call. He muttered a curse under his nose, hoping it wasn’t work as he glanced at the screen to see who it was. It wasn’t exactly comforting to see Logan calling him when they were supposed to meet in ten minutes so he picked up quickly.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked, worry already flooding him and he was ready to either step on the gas or turn the car around.

“Hi. I, uh, have a bit of a situation in the hospital and can’t make it home, so I’ll have to cancel the dinner” Logan said, his voice disappointed, and Keith could hear people talking and shouting in the background and there was a lot of noise of things being moved around. Generally, when Logan called, it was mostly from the silence of the morgue.

“What happened?”

“Well, I can’t say much yet” Logan started, then there were a few moments of silence, and the background noise became somewhat muted. “The paramedics brought in a corpse, supposedly died in his sleep less than thirty minutes ago, but the police are here and we have to do an examination right now, cause foul play is strongly suspected. There were problems between the grieving widow and her sons apparently, something about the last will of their father. I wasn’t told much but I think the police officers suspect the woman might have poisoned her husband before he could make changes.”

“Fuck” Keith breathed as he shook his head. These kind of sick things never ceased to shock him. “Can I help with anything? Do you want me to bring you food?”

“No, I’m gonna be fine. I already talked to Judy as well, so she can stay with Melissa. Hopefully I’ll be home by eight, or nine at most…” Logan said with a sigh and it was clear from his voice that he was already tired.

“Hey, do you want me to watch Melissa? Then Judy could go home and rest and we can still talk a bit in the evening” he offered suddenly on a whim. He really wanted to help Logan out somehow, and after such a case, especially if what the police thought was true, Logan was going to need to talk to someone about it. Neither his daughter, nor the babysitter were options for that.

“I- I can’t ask you that, you have work tomorrow” Logan said, sounding a bit surprised.

“Playing with your daughter won’t make me unable to work tomorrow. She’s a cool little girl, we get along well” Keith said with a smirk. Melissa had already seen a couple of police officers and detectives before but she was absolutely astonished to have one in her house. She could also ask him any questions any time and Keith answered her patiently and as honestly as he could, which also earned him a place in her good book.

“Well, she does like you” Logan agreed slowly, still sounding a bit reluctant to ask this of Keith. “But it’s true I asked Judy to work overtime a lot just in this month.” There was some silence again and Keith was waiting patiently. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much to ask of you?”

“Nah, man. I offered, remember?” Keith replied, still smiling. “You just do your work, we’ll be fine with Mel.”

“Alright. I’ll call Judy to let her know you’re coming. She’ll give you a quick tour of where you find what you need” Logan agreed, sounding somewhat relieved.

“I already know the number of the police” Keith said without a beat, still grinning.

“Yeah, no shit” Logan chuckled at the other end of the line. “I’ll see you later then. Thank you.”

“It’s no problem. See you later” Keith said goodbye, then Logan hung up.

Melissa was so excited when she saw Keith in the door and he told her that now he was going to be with her with the rest of the afternoon, she was absolutely enthusiastic. She immediately ran to her room for her favorite games to play, while Judy laughed in the background and explained to Keith some basic things. It wasn’t his first time in the house though, so he knew his way around just fine. It wasn’t bad to hear some tricks about Melissa, although Judy assured him that she wasn’t a problem child.

The afternoon and early evening went by quickly, and Keith learned how to play three different board games, the name of her favorite baseball players, and how to properly braid her hair. He had to start over twice because he kept messing it up. Her bedtime was eight pm, and while she was disappointed that her dad didn’t make it home by then, she didn’t put up a fight when Keith told her it was time to go to bed. She just followed Keith into her bedroom, and told him which fairy tale she wanted him to read. She was asleep before Keith had even finished reading to her, so he tiptoed out of the room and closed the door as silently as he could.

Keith was watching TV on the couch when Logan arrived around ten in the evening, looking exhausted. His eyes immediately found Keith on the couch and he smiled.

“Hey. Was everything alright?” Logan asked as he put his coat on the hanger and walked into the kitchen.

“Yeah, she’s a good girl. We played so many different games, I could barely keep up” Keith grinned as he got up from the couch and walked over to his friend.

“Oh, yeah, I bet. You’re new, so she can teach you the rules” Logan grinned at Keith as he opened the fridge and took out some of the leftover food, bringing it to the microwave. “She likes to show her toys to anyone available.”

“Thanks, for a moment, I felt special” Keith grinned at him over the counter and Logan turned towards him with a sorry-not-sorry face while he waited for his food to heat. “So how was work?” Keith asked and his mood dropped but he needed to ask it.

“Uh, it was horrible. We’ll have to wait for the results of the toxicology but we did the autopsy and it doesn’t seem like he died of a natural cause” Logan grimaced as he stared at the microwave. “You’ll probably hear about it tomorrow, it’s pretty hot topic now. The widow was brought in after I said I couldn’t determine any physical cause for death.”

“Yeah, then I’ll probably hear about it tomorrow” Keith nodded with a grim expression.

“Anyway” Logan said suddenly, before Keith could say anything else. He grabbed his plate from the microwave and went back to the fridge for a bottle of wine, then turned back towards Keith. “Let’s not talk about that now. I say we drink this wine and talk about some series or movie or anything that doesn’t involve murder” he declared and smiled at Keith who started chuckling at that. He walked over to the table and put his food and the wine down, then went back to grab cutlery and two glasses. “I guess you ate with Mel, right?”

“Yeah, we had dinner before she had a bath, I’m good” Keith nodded as he got around to opening the bottle while Logan made his way back with the glasses and settled them on the table.

“Alright then” Logan nodded as he sat down and looked at Keith. “So, tell me, what games did Mel make you play?”

“Oh, that’s gonna be a long list” Keith grinned at that, then started telling Logan while the man ate. After Logan had dinner, they moved over to the couch and finished the whole bottle of wine together. It was past midnight when Keith eventually got home.

***

“Hey, there, stranger!”

“Keith! What are you doing here?” Logan asked but couldn’t look up at his friend who just entered the pathology lab as he was just in the middle of removing a damaged heart.

“I’m here to do an interrogation but they are still patching up my man. So I brought you coffee” Keith explained and from the corner of his eyes, Logan could see him stop by the end of the table.

“Ah, I see. Got a runner?”

“Yeah. Almost killed a woman trying to rob her on the street” Keith replied with a sad sigh.

“Is she alright?” Logan asked, concerned, and put the heart on the tray Eleanor held up for him.

“Yes, brought her here in time, fortunately. She’ll make a full recovery” Keith answered and Logan was finally able to look up at him. Keith smiled at him when their eyes met, and held out one of the cups he was holding. “Coffee?”

“A moment” Logan laughed at that, holding up his hands with his bloody gloves. “I’m gonna go wash up a bit. And also change my shoes. I managed to get some liquid on it and I don’t even wanna think of what it’s made of.”

“You go on then” Keith laughed and leaned back against the wall to wait for him.

Logan nodded and left the room. Eleanor had already put the heart away for further inspection, and now came up to cover the cut up body with a sheet. Then she stopped beside the corpse, turned towards the detective and crossed her arms loosely, bloody gloves and apron still on.

“Nice to see you here again, detective” she said with a smile that made Keith feel like he was doing a test.

“Yeah, nice to see you, too” he smiled back at her somewhat uneasily but tried not to show it. He felt like she was expecting something of him but he had no idea what.

“Really kind of you to always bring Logan some coffee” she continued, the same smile still on her face and it was beginning to seriously unnerve Keith.

“The one he can get here is horrible, so…” he shrugged, trying to act casual but he had no idea what was going on.

“I’m sure be appreciates the company as well” Eleanor said with a nod, her smile growing into a grin and she had an expression on her face that Keith still couldn’t figure out.

“Well, hopefully. He hasn’t thrown me out so far” Keith laughed, feeling absolutely awkward by now but he wanted to look cool. He was not sure he managed that under Eleanor’s watch.

“Oh, I doubt you’re in any danger of being thrown out” Eleanor shrugged one shoulder carelessly. “I guess it’s true the other way around.”

“I mean, it’s not like he’s bringing me much coffee to the police station” Keith tried to joke, but when he only received a raised eyebrow, his smile faded. “Yeah, of course it’s true.”

“Good” she smiled at that, then let her arms drop, putting one hand on her hip, while leaning on the table lightly with the other. “You know, I’m really glad that you two are becoming close again. Logan hasn’t truly been open, not this open with anyone in the last few years” she continued in a chatty voice but her eyes held the true meaning.

“I- I understand” Keith nodded quickly because he had a feeling Eleanor was expecting a quick and honest response. “I’m glad to be close to him again, too.”

“Oh, I bet” she grinned, her eyes now shining and the heavy mood shifted in an instant into something more playful that made Keith blush.

“Okay, I’m here” Logan walked into the room, moving towards Keith and smiling at him happily. “Hopefully my coffee didn’t turn cold.”

“Oh, yeah, no” Keith started but he had to pause to clear his throat before going on. “I think it’s still warm enough” he said as he moved towards his friend, too, to hand him his drink.

“I’ll go and wash up, too. You two do your thing” Eleanor chimed in, smiled sweetly at them, which only grew sweeter when Logan gave her a confused half-glare, then left the room.

“Man, your assistant is fucking creepy” Keith whispered, with his eyes still on the door where Eleanor exited, as if he was afraid of being heard by her.

“You’ll get used to her. She is not actually that scary” Logan laughed at that and put a hand on his friend’s shoulder comfortingly.

“Honestly, I’m not so sure I even want to” Keith mumbled, leaning into his friend’s touch just a little but Logan just laughed lightly again, squeezed Keith’s shoulder reassuringly, then nodded towards his desk to signal that they should go sit down to talk.

***

It was a Saturday evening and Keith was currently sitting beside Logan in the latter’s living room as they were watching another Hollywood sitcom on TV while drinking wine. Neither of them liked the movie particularly but after the gruesome things they both witnessed at work on a daily basis, they were in no mood for an action movie or something of the like. Keith was still clearing up the mess after Halloran, even months later – the man’s dirty hand was in a lot of cases and going through whole closed files again took time, even with help. Then there were the new murder cases that sadly came in, and some of those involved Logan as well. So in the end they just settled on a light-hearted movie that neither of them enjoyed much but at least it wasn’t what they were forced to see daily.

Melissa wasn’t at home now because she had a sleepover party at one of her friends. According to Logan, she was so excited that she packed at least three changes of clothes just to be sure and her favorite astronaut pajamas. That was a very important part, Logan assured him, to look cool.

So they had the whole house to themselves, which was good, because they both needed the silence and calmness that offered them. And if they started talking about work for some reason, then they didn’t have to check if Melissa was within earshot and censure their words. But hopefully they weren’t going to talk work tonight because Logan felt so drained by it that he wanted to just forget about it for a while. Keith was probably the same, he thought, as he glanced at him above his wine glass.

“Eleanor is… pretty protective of you” Keith said suddenly, and Logan was taken by surprise by the topic. He didn’t know where to put that sentence.

“Is she?” he asked slowly, unsure of where this was going.

“Remember the time she scared me?” Keith looked at Logan with a shrug.

“You mean every single time you two meet in the lab?” Logan asked with a raised eyebrow and couldn’t help but grin.

“Well, you’re not wrong” Keith started slowly and ignored Logan’s teasing. “But I have a special occasion in mind. She- I think she was trying to scare me.”

“You’ve been scared of her on your own since you first saw her. It’s your fault, not hers” Logan leaned back as he was watching his friend with obvious amusement. “I know you want to get somewhere with this, no need to run around in circles.”

“It’s just- she is pretty protective of you” Keith shrugged, unwilling or unable to continue.

“Yeah, well, we’re friends, we look out for each other” Logan explained as a sort-of answer although he didn’t quite get what the question would be. “El has helped me get out of some very awkward situations with her ‘scariness’. It’s actually not a bad quality of hers if you’re on her good side. I also look out for her when some men come on too strongly.”

“That has been going on with you for a while, I guess?” Keith asked, with the same weird tone and Logan was getting really, really tired of it. Keith stood up from the couch before Logan could get out a word and went to the kitchen to set his empty wine glass down.

“Wait, don’t tell me- Do you still believe I’m together with Eleanor? Is this still about that?” Logan asked, and now he was pissed off – no, beyond pissed off. He couldn’t believe they were still there.

“Well, you two are pretty close and no one would blame you” Keith shrugged and put his hands in his pockets, looking at the ground in front of his feet. “She is very smart and attractive.”

“She is but that’s not all there is” Logan said slowly as he stood up as well, taking a few steps toward his friend. “We are good friends but that’s it. You of all people should have realized by now that I don’t like her that way.”

“What do you mean by me of all people?” Keith asked, suddenly frozen to spot and his eyes widened slightly, although he tried to regulate his facial expressions.

Logan walked over to him with an easy smile on his face and put his hands on Keith’s, sliding them over the back of his hands in the pockets, if a bit awkwardly because of the angle. It brought them very close, with Logan’s face less than an inch away from Keith’s as he looked into the other’s eyes.

“I think you know what I mean. Unless I read you wrong” he whispered, his smile turning softer and his eyes flickered down to the detective’s lips. There was no question or uncertainty in his voice.

“No, I… I think you got it right” Keith replied, barely audible as he was suddenly completely out of air and swallowed at the way Logan was looking at his lips. Then Logan smiled wider and leaned forward, and oh god, they were kissing all of a sudden.

As their lips met, Logan moved his hands up on Keith’s chest, slid them up to his shoulders and this encouraged Keith to wrap his arms around Logan’s waist in return. The kiss was slow and warm, exactly what Logan needed, what he wanted. He felt the scent of Keith’s perfume, a scent that was so familiar to him by now, and it made him smile.

“I can’t believe you’re a detective and can’t recognize a shovel talk” Logan said, still smiling as he pulled back from the kiss.

“Well, maybe because I’m used to hearing it after I got together with someone” Keith smiled back but he was blushing. In hindsight, it did make sense, actually, but he didn’t quite get it on the spot.

“Weak. El was way ahead of both of us, and she also noticed my affections before you. It should be your job to recognize signs” Logan teased on but only got an eye-roll from Keith.

“Sorry, my specialty is homicide, not dating. But I can ask my boss if I can transfer” the detective smirked and it made Logan laugh loudly.

“You’re horrible” he shook his head, then pulled Keith into another kiss.

***

At eleven in the morning, they were still in their pajamas as they were lazing about on the couch with the TV on in the background, although they were more occupied with each other. They had some years to make up for and both of them were keen to work on that. This closeness, this intimacy was also something they very much missed – Christine had been dead for three years, and Keith couldn’t remember the last time he was in a real relationship. Logan wasn’t looking after he lost his wife and Keith just – he just didn’t seem to have the time. But now there was no question of what they wanted anymore, and there was safety in knowing that.

The bell rang suddenly, breaking the comfortable background noise of the TV.

“This must be Kathy. She promised to bring Melissa home today” Logan whispered as Keith looked up frowning. He really, really didn’t want to get up from the couch because Keith felt so warm and good on top of him, but he had to get the door. So he had no choice but to stand up as Keith moved back and walked to the door to open it.

“Hi, dad!” Melissa smiled at him immediately and moved to hug him. Logan leaned down to return the hug with a smile.

“Hi there, Mel. Was the party good?”

“Yeah, dad, it was awesome! I gotta tell you about it later!” she nodded enthusiastically, then waving goodbye to Kathy, she started running towards her bedroom, only stopping when she noticed Keith. “Oh, hiya, Keith!” she waved at him too, then continued on towards her bedroom.

“Thank you for bringing her home” Logan turned to Kathy with a grateful smile.

“No worries. You need to relax sometimes, and that also means sleeping in every now and then” she waved dismissively with her hand, but she also looked curiously towards the couch where Keith was still sitting. “I’m glad to see you’re having fun. See you later!” she said with a smirk, then started walking towards her car. She either didn’t notice, or didn’t care about the way Logan was gaping at her with a faint blush. In the end, he just said a weak goodbye as well, and turned back to Keith.

“I- I guess all moms in Melissa’s class are now notified” Logan said with an awkward smile and rubbed the back of his neck. For once, he was kind of glad his work didn’t allow him to pick Melissa up from school. In the mornings there were no time to chat, but in the afternoons…

“Yeah, well, they have better networking than the FBI” Keith just shrugged with a smirk but stood up from the couch and went over to Logan to wrap his arms around his waist. “Is that problem for you? I mean, we didn’t talk about how we’re gonna deal with this, but I understand if you wanna keep it low.”

“No, no, it’s not that” Logan shook his head quickly, then shrugged one shoulder. “That was just a bit too sudden. But I’m not gonna hide this.”

“I’m glad I won’t be your dirty little secret” Keith grinned at that and nuzzled Logan’s neck.

“You’re so stupid” Logan laughed fondly, then took Keith’s face to his hands and drew him in to a kiss. Keith was still smiling when their lips met but the kiss soon took priority. Logan moved closer to him as the kiss deepened, and he thought he could definitely get used to this when he felt Keith’s hand stroke his back gently.

“Dad!” he heard his daughter’s voice suddenly and felt Keith freeze just the same as he before they jumped apart. He looked at his daughter, rather awkwardly, ready for her reaction.

“Yes, honey?”

“What’s gonna be for lunch?” she asked, looking at him as if she hadn’t just caught her dad kissing another man. Someone who was not her mother.

“Um, I- I haven’t thought about that yet” Logan replied, a bit confused. “What would you like to eat?”

“Mac n cheese! Can we have mac n cheese, please?” she asked, her eyes lighting up as she looked between her dad and Keith as she waited for the answer.

“Yeah, of course” Logan nodded and glancing at Keith briefly, he was happy to notice he looked equally lost.

“Awesome!” she smiled happily, her face lighting up, then she turned on her heels and went back to her room.

There were a few moments of silence where the two men were staring after her in confusion.

“I guess that was it with her then?” Keith looked at Logan a bit helplessly.

“I guess so?” Logan looked back at him with a similar expression on his face.

Then suddenly relieved laughter burst out of them, and Logan threw his hands around Keith, resting his head on his shoulder as they were both shaking with laughter. When they calmed down, Logan pulled back and went to the kitchen to start preparing lunch. Keith followed after him with a hand around his waist.

**Author's Note:**

> Title might change.


End file.
